This invention relates to a water container unit mounted water filtering system. More particularly, the instant invention is directed to a universal batch treatment and filtration device wherein water is filtered, treated and used as needed on demand, as for example, in a group environment wherein individual use and consumption of purified water is relevant. The water to be treated is stored in any suitable container to be filtered, treated and force-pumped from the container as needed by the user, being pumped from the water container into a drink cup. The universal water purifier assembly device comprising the assembly housing structure, the force pump, the filter cartridge and the means of sealing the device to the water container function as a self-contained water treatment system wherein the filtration assembly is mounted on the water container. The treated water flows from a spigot mounted proximate to the air pressure bellows pump. The water treatment system relies upon air pressure provided by the bellows pump to force water through the filter cartridge to remove harmful contaminants from the water. The water container acts as a reservoir of untreated water to be filtered and treated. The air pressure generated by the bellows pump pressurizes the void of the water container and thereby causes the contaminated water within the water container to flow through the filter cartridge and out the spigot into a drink cup.
The presence of unwanted and potentially harmful contaminants in drinking water are a cause for health concern. This concern causes a desire for water treatment devices suitable for use in the home and as portable instruments for water treatment. As a result, many water treatment devices and methods have been developed to remove contaminants or otherwise treat the water to obtain a suitable drinking water.
Some of these water treatment devices and methods utilize treatment materials, which, of their own nature, can be distasteful to consumers of the treated water. For example, municipal water treatment facilities use chlorine as an active agent to remove bacterial contaminants but the odor and taste of the treated water can be offensive to the consumers. It is known to use activated carbon to treat water to remove the offensive odor and taste of chlorine-treated water but flow rate of water through the activated carbon can be hampered.
In addition to chemical and particulate contaminants, several types of harmful contaminants in drinking water are a cause for health concern. Even municipal water treatment fails to adequately remove all of the hazardous contaminates. Many municipal systems use chlorine as disinfectant to remove bacteria. It is known that excess chlorine normally used by the municipality is in itself a source to create harmful chemicals commonly known as disinfectant-by-products, (DBP). These DBP, along with herbicides and pesticides, often present and known as volatile-organic-chemicals (VOC), are harmful chemicals in the water system. Besides these volatile-organic-chemical contaminants, biological contaminants including protozoan cysts as Giardia, lamibial and Cryptosporidium, excreted by animals, are present in certain waters.
Cysts are not easily removed by conventional oxidizing agents. Common methods of removing cysts are to trap them in a filter that has porosity less than 2 microns. Such filters with pore sizes less than 2 microns typically are used in water purifier systems that provide water line pressure.
Gravity filtration is one of the oldest ways of filtering water. Starting from a simple filter cloth to remove suspended impurities to carbon granules along with certain ion exchange media to remove chlorine and certain heavy metals, gravity filtration systems have upper and lower chambers separated by the filter cartridge. The system relies on gravity of the untreated water in the upper chamber to force the water through the cartridge and into the lower chamber thereby producing filtered water. These gravity filtration systems used in homes vary in sizes, defined by the capacity of the two chambers. One such gravity filtration system commonly used in homes is the carafe type of filter with the top container having a capacity less than 3 liters. The gravity pressure of the untreated water is sufficient to force the water through a limited amount of activated carbon granules and ion exchange resins.
However, gravity pressure of water is typically not sufficient to force the water through a semi-permeable membrane, if such is used. An additional force source is needed to force the water through the membrane.
In the instant invention, bellows pump air pressure is used to force water through the filter cartridge comprising filters and water treatment materials to remove harmful contaminants and particulate matter from the water.
In the prior art, replaceable filter cartridges for household use have been taught and claimed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,743 to Van Meter et al. teaches and claims a filter cartridge of particles of activated charcoal and other suitable absorbent material wherein the cartridge is contained within a housing. Water is filtered by passing it through the tubular wall of the cartridge by the space between the cartridge and the housing toward the outlet or the inside of the tubular cartridge. The filter cartridge is generally cup-shaped. The filter cartridge structure provides a long flow path of approximately seven inches for water traveling from the inlet to the outlet to provide effective odor and taste filtering of the water with a long contact time.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,694 to Head teaches and claims a filter tube comprising a plurality of randomly disposed glass fibers having intersections between to define the porosity of the filter. The glass fibers are bonded at the junctions of the fiber cross-overs with a hardened silicone resin bonding agent, the fibers interrelated to form a semi-rigid mass of desired porosity to incorporate an outer absorbent activated carbon-filled filter sleeve. The bonding agent typically may be phenal-formaldahyde or epoxy resins or other thermosetting-type resins. However, the bonding agent can impart hydrophobicity to the filter and restrict the scope of the filter applications and organic bonding agents can have a color, which darkens with sunlight and use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,078 to Polasky et al. teaches and claims a pass-through pitcher filter comprising a compact filter element including a thin annular disk of molded granular activated carbon and a peripheral annular seal element. The seal element allows the filter to be replaceably mounted on the lower end of an upper plastic reservoir, which reservoir is adapted to be supported in the top of a pitcher for receiving filtered water. The plastic reservoir for water to be treated and the filter are placed on a pitcher for receiving and dispensing the treated water. Such assemblies rely on gravity flow of the water from the reservoir to the pitcher via the filter. The seal element utilizes a synthetic rubber material and is preferably molded around the carbon filter disk. The filter element is made from a rigid sintered block of activated granular carbon. The carbon block is made from granular activated carbon and a suitable binder, such as polyethylene, compressed and heated to form a molded porous block. In the preferred embodiment, a carbon block has a nominal 20-micron porosity and is approximately ½ inch (13 mm) thick and 4¼ inches (5.5 cm) in diameter. An annular synthetic rubber seal is attached to the periphery of the carbon block. The seal may comprise a neoprene-like material. The seal is formed by injection molding around the carbon block. When the filter element is used initially or after it has remained unused for a period of time, surface tension between water in the reservoir which is to be filtered and the dry porous carbon block may inhibit normal gravity flow of the water through the filter element. To initiate flow, manual pressure is applied to the bellows element of the reservoir to compress air in the reservoir to force water through the carbon block to initiate water flow.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,848 to Tanner et al. teaches and claims a filter cartridge for a gravity-fed water treatment device comprising a hydrophilic porous particulate filter having an interior volume filled with an granular filter media comprising granular activated carbon, an ion exchange resin or a combination thereof. The porous particulate filter is microporous, comprises pleated sheet filter media, and is arranged to establish a pressure of about 0.5 lb./in2 a flow rate of water by gravity through the filter cartridge. The preferred form of carbon of use is granular activated carbon. The preferred granular media for use in the filter cartridge is a mixture of a weak-acid cation exchange resin and granular activated carbon. Such a device has a low flow rate, which is not practical for a gravity fed water treatment device. To overcome this limitation, the porous particulate filter contains hydrophilic material. The porous glass fiber and hydrophilic binder provides water that has 99.95% of 3-5 micron cyst particles removed. However, such a device does not typically remove volatile-organic-chemicals as not being capable of doing so without specified treating chemicals or materials
Other prior art patents disclose procedures and structures relating to portable water filters. U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,092 to Grimm et al. teaches use of a manual pump to force liquid from a first container through a filter to treat the liquid at a suitable rate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,971 to Hankammer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,996 to Hankammer disclose a cup-shaped insert for a granular purifying agent to purify water. U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,093 Hembree et al. teaches use of a plunger to force unfiltered water through a filter.
In the prior art, the idea of dispensing liquid from a container using air pressure inside the container is well known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,720 to Malone describes a reusable dispensing apparatus for dispensing a flowable product by pressurized air. The air pressure is created by an internal air pump operated by the user. U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,520 to Nishioka describes a means of pouring a liquid contained in vacuum flask without tilting the flask or opening the lid. The liquid is pumped up a tube by the pressure created by bellows design pump in the lid of the flask. This type of device, usually a thermos flask, to dispense either hot or cold liquid, which has a bellows-type of pump in the lid, is commonly known as an “air pot”. A further modification and easy dispensing of the fluid is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,147 to Frazier et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,104 to Takatsuki. Newer “air pots” were designed wherein the water tube is concealed in the wall of the container as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,174 to Ikunosuke et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,054 to Chen. Based on the above, numerous products are available that use either simple bottles to dispense fluids or use thermos flasks to dispense hot or cold fluids into a cup without opening the lid or tilting the flasks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,526 to Muller describes how pressurized water flows through a purifier cartridge. An external pump creates the pressure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,448 to Kaura shows the use of a bellows pump to push the water from one chamber to another lower chamber having a purifier between the two chambers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,813 to Daniels describes a water purifier cartridge in the neck of a bottle. Pressure is created inside the bottle by squeezing the sides of the bottle, which pushes the water through the purifier cartridge. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,315 to Lonneman, water to be purified flows up longitudinally inside the purifier cartridge. The pressure to enable the flow of water is created by a combination of squeezing the sides of the bottle and also sucking on the outlet mouthpiece.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a universal fluid filter and water purifier assembly device having improved fluid flow as compared with prior art filters.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved unit water filtration and purifier treatment device for use with a container of any rigid material and of any size and shape.
It is another object of this invention to provide a universal filter and water purifier assembly device capable of removing harmful chemicals known as disinfectant-by-products (DBP) and volatile-organic-chemicals (VOC) and protozoan cysts from contaminated water in multiple containers by using the universal filter and water purifier device in separate applications to each of the multiple containers.
It is another object of this invention to provide a fluid filter having elements comprising a semi-permeable membrane and a hydrophilic filter sheet having a porosity within the range of from 2 to 25 microns.
It is another object of this invention to provide a universal filter and water purifier assembly device comprising a structural filter cartridge assembly comprising a multistage filter system comprising multiple filters comprising, selectively, a semi-permeable membrane, a hollow-fiber membrane, a molded porous polymeric material including a ceramic, non-woven fabric, a pleated filter of 2 micron filter paper and/or of 2 micron ceramic construction, and an air pressure pump to provide compressed air to the closed water container.
It is another object of this invention to provide a universal water purifier assembly device for use as a self-contained compressed air unitary water treatment system to be used on small table top models and large size units as selected by the user.
It is another object of this invention to provide a universal fluid filter having suitable structural characteristics by use of plastic material of suitable structural strength as the structural material.
It is another object of this invention to provide an annular seal element to seal the junction between the universal water purifier unitary assembly device and the mouth of the water container to retain compressed air within the water container.